Supramolecular nanostructures as drug carriers

•Anticancer drugs could serve as part of the building units to promote molecular assembly.•Drug amphiphiles could create discrete nanostructures with a high and fixed drug loading content.•Structural integrity of supramolecular structures presents a concern for in vivo applications.•Payload-containing supramolecular carriers can be produced with enhanced stability.

Supramolecular nanostructures are well-defined nanoscale objects that are constructed by self-assembly of rationally designed or naturally occurring molecular building units. These non-covalently linked assemblies carry some advantageous features such as dynamic and stimulus-responsive structures for interfacing with biological systems and particularly for use as drug carriers. In this brief review, we examine several recent examples on the use of discrete supramolecular nanostructures as drug carriers, and discuss the key challenges in optimizing such self-assembling systems for improved treatments of cancer.